


Music to my Ears

by megastarstrike



Series: Mega's Mission to write Mega Cliches [1]
Category: Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Enemies to Friends, Fluff, Gen, probably unrealistic apartment things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 18:45:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17834093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megastarstrike/pseuds/megastarstrike
Summary: Robin liked listening to music. It was a nice distraction from whatever she had going on in life, was more entertaining than the paperwork sitting unfinished at her desk, and was generally a nice mode of entertainment.Her neighbor's EDM blasts at two in the morning didn't count.





	Music to my Ears

**Author's Note:**

> i do realize im infecting the entire fandom's tag by writing a fic not set in canon. im sorry.
> 
> also all these personalities are totally getting jossed in like 5 months but that's okay i guess.

Robin liked to believe she was generally a decent person. She got along with her coworkers, always remembered her sister and mother’s birthdays, treated her lab subjects with respect, and possessed other aspects of a good, patient person.

That being said, if she didn’t end up punching a hole through the wall separating her and her neighbor, it would be a miracle.

Robin paced around her bedroom, keeping her footsteps light enough so the people below her wouldn’t complain. After all, they already had enough to complain about with her neighbor blasting their music so loudly at—what was it?— two in the morning? Who in their right mind would be up at two in the morning?

Well, maybe that wasn’t the right question. First of all, there was her filling in paperwork for requesting more subjects for a lab test. Then there was her sister, who was undoubtedly still going through paperwork in her mission to escape middle management. And of course there was her asshole neighbor, who may or may not have been doing paperwork as well and perhaps cranked up their music to distract themselves from the pain.

Excuses or no, this was not acceptable.

_That’s it. I’m showing them a piece of my mind._

Robin stormed out of her apartment, slamming the door behind her before stomping her way to her neighbor’s door. She rapped her knuckles on the door as loudly as she could. “Excuse me! Could you please step out for a moment?”

The only response was more EDM blasting through the door and into the stratosphere.

“Hello? Please answer me!”

“Can all of you just shut up?” came someone else’s disgruntled voice from the upper floor. “I hate these thin walls, holy fuck…” They trailed off into what Robin presumed was angry mumbling.

Robin flinched at the harsh voice and yelled back, “Sorry!”

The EDM continued as Robin stepped back into her apartment. Her voice hadn’t been loud enough to attract the attention of the neighbor at hand. Maybe she could write a note? She looked around her room.

A bed, a nightstand, a lamp, a desk, a chair, papers everywhere, a pen holder, and a computer. Yet somehow even with the mess of papers at her desk, there were no disposable papers in sight.

Robin groaned and made a mental note to buy more blank paper and sticky notes tomorrow before climbing back into bed, holding a pillow over her ears in a sad attempt to block out the music.

 

* * *

 

A few days later, the music returned with full force, prompting Robin awake and ready to fight for her sleep.

 _Oh, lord, when will it stop?_ she thought to herself. Though she noticed even her thoughts were muffled by the loud music that their landlord should have interfered with ten million years ago.

Robin set to work uncapping a pen off her desk and scribbling on a sticky note. The letters were inconsistent and certainly not perfectly in line, but she was in a rush, damn it! She only had—she checked the clock—four hours before she had to wake up for work, and she was determined to savor all two hundred forty minutes of sleep.

Robin peeled the sticky note off the stack before stepping out of her room. She rubbed the adhesive off with the fabric of her shirt before sliding it under the door of her neighbor’s room and holding her breath.

The note disappeared. A shadow flickered before the note was shoved back to Robin’s side.

_Leave. You have no control over this jurisdiction, neighbor. I will use force if you do not concede._

Anger boiled in Robin’s gut. Who did this person think they were, threatening her when they were the one clearly in the wrong? And who didn’t use contractions when writing? It sounded like one of the many legal documents she had to read all day, and frankly it rubbed her the wrong way. She scribbled back a response and slipped the note under the door again.

Another hasty response. At least her neighbor was good at being punctual.

_This is the proper method of wielding a language. I will attract the negative attention of the landlord if you do not leave the premises._

Robin snorted. Their landlord hadn’t been useful since the prehistoric times. She corrected them on the same sticky note, her words growing smaller as she neared the end of the available space.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it), her neighbor had provided them with a new set of sticky notes—a lighter shade of blue. His response was written on the front.

_No, I am not “scared” as you suggest. And I will immediately correct your assumption that I do not have the power to destroy you._

Two minutes passed. Robin counted.

 _Still not destroyed yet,_ Robin wrote, rolling her eyes. _I’m going to try sleeping. Maybe I’ll succeed when you stop being a jerk._

She slipped the note under the door and returned to her own apartment. All attempts to block out the music were unsuccessful, though she had somehow managed to snag herself a good thirty minutes of sleep.

When she woke up and stepped out of her room, a blue sticky note was set in front of her neighbor’s door.

_Goodnight._

 

* * *

 

“Ugh, can you believe that absolute jerkwad?” Robin hissed into her phone, her grip around it frighteningly close to cracking the screen in half. She stomped around her apartment with her other hand on her head. “They have the nerve to say goodnight to me after being the one to disrupt my sleep for so many nights? I’m moving out.”

Her sister sighed on the other end of the phone. “This is what you called me for?”

“Uh, yes? Can’t you hear the music?”

“Trust me, I can hear it just fine. You can stay with me for a few days if you’re really that desperate.”

“No need for that, Sam,” Robin said. Her anger had melted away quickly once she vented about her current issue. No surprise there. “I just need to know how to deal with that guy.”

“I take it you’ve tried ignoring them.”

“Of course I did. Who do you think I am, some kind of idiot?”

“Sometimes.”

“Sam—”

Sam’s laughter cut Robin off from whatever she was about to say next. “I have to return to work, but I’ll leave you with one note: communication is generally the killer between relationships. Goodbye, Robin.”

Robin sighed and murmured, “Bye, Sam.”

The phone screen lit up, indicating Sam had exited the call.

Communication kills relationships? What did Sam mean by that? Robin had already made plenty of attempts to contact her neighbor, both verbally and through writing. What else could she do with an asshole who thought blasting their music in the middle of the night was okay?

Unless… they never got the memo that doing such a thing wasn’t okay. And her neighbor’s stinted writings certainly conveyed the sense that they didn’t…

Well, now she felt bad.

Robin took a deep breath before stepping out of her apartment and standing before her neighbor’s door, sticky note and pen in hand. She scribbled a quick message before sending it underneath the door.

The note disappeared. A few seconds later, so did the music. The door clicked open, revealing a person with stone cold eyes and lips pursed in a straight line.

“You outlined your wish to speak with me face-to-face,” the person said, their face remaining robotic.

Robin almost took a step back. The person’s eye contact was intense, so intense it felt as if she were being challenged to a duel. Still, she held her ground. “I don’t mean to disturb you, but… I’m the neighbor that’s been sending you messages. You do realize that blasting your music at such late hours is generally an unacceptable thing to do, right?”

A blink. Then another blink. Then their eyes widened the slightest bit. “Oh. I was not aware of that.”

So Robin’s guess was right. Her neighbor wasn’t an asshole, they were an ignorant doofus.

Robin almost felt sorry for the person in front of her, whose body language was stiff but still managed to radiate some bit of shame. Have they been so isolated from others that they didn’t learn basic manners? How did they make it this far in life without those skills?

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Robin asked tentatively.

“No,” her neighbor responded, “I only require two hours of sleep every day. I have split those hours into thirty-minute sessions to further improve efficiency.”

Robin had the feeling her neighbor and Sam would get along real quick.

Before Robin could comment on the absurdity of their sleep schedule, the hall lights were flipped on. Her eyes widened at the familiar sight of blue uniforms and silver cuffs glinting in the light.

The police officer regarded them both with the raise of an eyebrow. “I’m here on account of repeated noise disturbance reports, but I wasn’t provided with the room number. Do either of you two happen to know it?”

Robin locked eyes with her neighbor. Should she really do this for the person responsible for the destruction of her sleep schedule? But then again, their behavior was from ignorance, not malice. That had to count for something, right?

She turned to the officer. “No, officer, but I believe the noise disturbance happened somewhere on the floor above us.”

“Thank you for your help.” The officer climbed up the stairs, disappearing out of view and hearing range.

Robin turned back to her neighbor, only to see them regarding her with an almost curious head tilt. “What?”

Her neighbor returned to their usual stiff stance. “You lied to law enforcement.”

“Yeah, I kind of had to. I covered our arse. Unless you wanted to get caught.”

They continued staring at her with their trademark blank expression. Just before Robin made up an excuse to leave, they said, “You are tolerable. You may call me Alan.”

Robin blinked before breaking into a smile. “Nice to meet you, Alan. You can call me Robin.”

**Author's Note:**

> i know its kind of a sin to write some shitpost like this not set in the beautiful world UWE gave us ~~and i feel kind of bad about it whoops~~. i hope you enjoyed reading nonetheless.


End file.
